Aqualife has always been strategically located on Stirling University’s campus in Scotland, which is also home to the Institute of Aquaculture, the leading international centre for aquaculture research and teaching.

However, we’ve always been pioneering and our journey into new markets began with a mammoth three-day driving trip from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, to Tromso in the far north of Norway in an old Isuzu Trooper to vaccinate 500,000 fish. It was winter and we didn’t know about winter tyres. But we got there, did the job and drove back again. That was in 2000 and today we have a registered company in Norway and experienced vaccination teams working across the country.

Over the last few years we have been leading the way in fish health, and have set the benchmarks for fish vaccination. In 2015 we merged with our former rivals, Salmovac, to further demonstrate our commitment to the home market in Scotland.

We also expanded into other countries and, in 2017, we secured our first contracts in Iceland and Australia.

In 2018, after having successfully completed the development of a pre prototype automated vaccination system, we felt confident enough to commit to building our first commercial prototype unit. We gained a SMART grant to allow us to do this and started the process of raising money through equity. We hired a senior engineer to manage the project and took on two further engineers. We took over the lease of a small hatchery and smolt unit which gave us access to office space, workshop facilities and our own fish for testing our developments.

In addition, we set up a business in Portugal to give us access to sea bass, bream and trout producers in the Mediterranean, Spain and Portugal regions.

In 2020, we conceived and developed a multi species, multi vaccination, semi automated Covid-19 friendly vaccination solution, to help reduce the number of people required to vaccinate fish. This system will also work with tilapia and pangasius. In 2021, we will roll out both our semi automated system, SAIB, and our fully automated systems Inocubot 1 and Inocubot 2.

In addition to those countries already mentioned, we have carried out fish vaccination in Ireland, England, France, Denmark, the Faroes, Belarus and Russia.

We continue to explore new opportunities throughout Europe and Asia and we want to share our skills and experience with you wherever you are or whatever your project.